‘In-out’ EU vote pledge for Britain

DAVID Cameron will this week give a firm commitment for a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the European Union.

The Prime Minister will make the historic pledge of a national vote after the next general election. And it is likely to include the option of leaving the EU.

His long-awaited speech, due on Wednesday, is expected to be a “red-meat announcement” that will ­satisfy most Eurosceptics.

He had been scheduled to make the speech in the Netherlands on Friday but it was postponed due to the Algeria hostage crisis.

The PM is expected to warn that unless there is real change in ­Brussels, Britain could “drift towards the exit” from the EU.

Mr Cameron has indicated that he will set out proposals to negotiate a new relationship with the EU which would then be put to the referendum after the next general election.

Such a move would mark a significant step forward in the Daily Express crusade to get Britain to quit the EU, which has forced the issue firmly on to the political agenda.

The Prime Minister has made clear he wants Britain to stay in the EU and opposes a straight in-out referendum, but critics have warned that any “no” vote could mean the UK would have to leave.

Confirming that the speech would go ahead this week, Foreign Secretary William Hague said there was a strong case for seeking “fresh consent” from voters for Britain’s relationship with Brussels.

We want to ­succeed in the European Union

Foreign Secretary William Hague

He said: “We want to ­succeed in the European Union, we want an outward-looking EU to succeed in the world, and for the United Kingdom to succeed in that.

“But we have to recognise that the European Union has changed a lot since the referendum of 1975 and that there have been not only great achievements to the EU’s name but some things that have gone badly wrong, such as the euro.”

Former defence secretary Liam Fox said there would eventually need to be an in-out referendum.

He said: “I think ultimately there has to be an in-out ­referendum because otherwise we’re going to have our politics in Britain constantly undermined by this debate and I think it’s very important that we settle one way or another the European argument for a generation.”

If the choice was between going in the current direction with an ultimately greater and greater loss of British sovereignty, Dr Fox said: “my personal preference would be to leave”.

“I don’t want to have ever closer union, I don’t want to be a European first and British second,” he said.

But Eurosceptic Dr Fox added that he was “broadly satisfied” with what he believed Mr Cameron was intending to say on Europe in his speech this week.